Kings XI Punjab added to the agony of an already well-beaten Delhi Daredevils and kept alive its slender hopes of making the playoff with its sixth victory -- third in succession -- in the Indian Premier League.
Kings coasted to a 29-run victory but not without the help of its rivals. Daredevils' ordinary fielding and poor catching played its part in Kings reaching 170 for six after being put into bat.
Thereafter, when a racy start was needed, Daredevils top-order came up with a tardy display, wickets fell in a heap and it ended up crashing to its ninth defeat in 13 outings.
With Ryan Harris creating the early pressure, Daredevils openers David Warner and Naman Ojha decided to go after the friendly medium pace of Shalabh Srivastav and ended up offering catches to wicket-keeper captain Adam Gilchrist.
Under mounting pressure, the Daredevils middle-order chose to attack Man-of-the-Match Piyush Chawla and ended up giving the leg-spinner three wickets, and with it, plenty of confidence. Later, the use of long handle by the tailenders only brought down the margin of defeat.
Kings's sixth victory kept it on course for a possible place in the playoff. It now needs to beat table-topper Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday, a less-formidable Deccan Chargers on May 21 to reach 16 points while hoping for some favourable results from some of the other matches.
Riding his luck, opener Paul Valthaty smashed his second half-century of the competition and replaced Chris Gayle as the new holder of the ‘Orange Cap'. Valthaty's 62 raised his aggregate to 438 runs from 12 innings and pushed Gayle (436 from seven innings) to the second spot.
Valthaty and Shaun Marsh raised 102 for the second wicket to set the foundation for a formidable total but fell off successive deliveries to Irfan Pathan. These dismissals proved instrumental in keeping the Kings' tally down but on this day, the host was not to be denied.
If Valthaty should thank Daredevils for his fortuitous existence in the middle, Marsh had no such obligation. His clean hitting particularly in one over from S. Sriram that fetched 25 runs including three sixes and a boundary stood out during the 28-ball knock.
Later, Dinesh Karthik made the most of a dropped catch by wicket-keeper Naman Ojha. He contributed 27 runs at a time when Daredevils was threatening to claw back into the match. Eventually, Kings made it without being threatened.
The scores:
Kings XI Punjab: P. Valthaty b Pathan 62 (50b, 6x4, 3x6), A. Gilchrist c Warner b Morkel 9 (9b, 2x4), S. Marsh c Morkel b Pathan 46 (28b, 5x4, 3x6), D. Karthik c Hopes b Salvi 27 (19b, 4x4), D. Hussey c Hopes b Salvi 3 (4b), Mandeep Singh b Pathan 11 (7b, 2x4), R. Harris (not out) 2 (2b), P. Chawla (not out) 1 (1b), Extras (lb-2, w-7) 9, Total (for six wickets in 20 overs) 170
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-123, 3-123, 4-138, 5-156, 6-168.
Delhi Daredevils bowling: I. Pathan 4-0-28-3, M. Morkel 4-0-23-1, V. Aaron 4-0-26-0, A. Salvi 4-0-40-2, J. Hopes 3-0-27-0, S. Sriram 1-0-25-0.
Delhi Daredevils: N. Ojha c Gilchrist b Srivastav 28 (28b, 2x4, 2x6), D. Warren c Gilchrist b Srivastav 29 (29b, 4x4, 1x6) 29, Venugopal Rao c Harris b Chawla 16 (13b, 1x4, 1x6), S. Sriram c Karthik b Chawla 4 (7b), I. Pathan c Mandeep b Valthaty 3 (7b), J. Hopes c Gilchrist b Chawla 7 (7b, 1x4), T. Birt c Harris b Kumar 16 (11b, 2x4, 1x6), Y. Nagar lbw b Harris 10 (7b, 2x4), M. Morkel (not out) 16 (6b, 1x4, 1x6), V. Aaron (not out) 0 (5b), Extras (lb-4, w-8) 12, Total (for eight wickets in 20 overs) 141.
Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-67, 3-72, 4-90, 5-92, 6-97, 7-116, 8-128.
Kings XI Punjab bowling: P. Kumar 4-1-32-1, R. Harris 4-0-16-1, S. Srivastav 4-0-39-2, P. Chawla 4-0-16-3, P. Valthaty 4-0-34-1.
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